


thieves' tools

by AProxyNation



Category: Persona 5, Persona 5 Royal, Persona Series
Genre: Action/Adventure, Combat, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24893197
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AProxyNation/pseuds/AProxyNation
Summary: For a team accused of possession of weapons, your profile suggests that you haven’t used one beforehand. Why would you need those weapons now? Tell me.(or: an exploration of the thieves’ weapons and their uses.)
Relationships: Amamiya Ren & Phantom Thieves of Hearts, Kurusu Akira & Phantom Thieves of Hearts, Persona 5 Protagonist & Phantom Thieves of Hearts
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	thieves' tools

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to C.F. for editing this and being a good friend.

_"... A compact, ingeniously designed tool with multiple uses." -The Encyclopedia Britannica on the Swiss Army Knife._

Akira Kurusu has never used a weapon in his life. 

But now he finds himself in a dingy cell on the first day of school, waking up to Arsène, and saving a vulgar blond from a perverted version of a P.E teacher- The last thing in his mind should be the knife in his hand as he stabs a floating Halloween pumpkin and it bursts into black dust. Holding this thing shouldn't be as… _familiar_ to him. 

Maybe his hometown was right, he is a real criminal. Ha, if that's the case, he should act like it. With this thought spurring him forward, he sees another freaky pumpkin. He summons Arsène from his soul and hears him laughing in glee with his plan. Akira couches down as his persona picks him up and catapults him to his target. Twirling through the air, Akira steadies his knife for his kill.

Akira smirks as he sees what is, presumably, the fear (he's taking that emotion from a pumpkin, give him a break) of his prey and digs his knife into its flesh, leaving a deep dark (probably) blood wound. A scream of dismay comes from it as Akira lands. Another slice turns the pumpkin to ashes. 

A smug grin settles on his face as his clothing flashes back to normal and he turns around to see the c- Morgana. Morgana looks pretty surprised at the skirmish and the blond in shock.

"What the eff was that dude?!" Akira just shrugs in response and waves them over to the staircase. 

"Wow fuzzy hair, I wasn't expecting that from you!" Morgana bounces up and down as they climb the stairs up into a hallway. "You may be what I need for-" A guard steps through the doorway right across from them with big clunky footsteps. 

In a blue burst of flame, Akira's weird outfit comes back on as he calls upon Arsène. His persona soars through the hallway and claws off the knight's mask. The knight explodes into three different monsters. Akira doesn't care enough to categorize them right now and he pushes his palm out, power festering.

"Eiha!" A swarm of darkness surrounds one of the creatures when out of the corner of his eye, Akira sees Morgana using his own persona to throw himself across the hall. Akira looks back to see his attack missing but then sees a black blur pin the creature to the ground. He could feel Arsène fizzle back into his soul- 

"Witness my resolve!" Morgana takes his sword out from the prone monster and strikes the one next to him. Not one to be outdone, Akira starts running towards the battle, picking up a vase from one of the tables off to the side, and lobs it at the demon that Morgana isn't engaging. That one was close to hitting Morgana on the back before getting a face full of (probably fake) china. 

Getting close enough to attack, Akira takes his mask off as his persona flies in close to the stunned demon and lifts it off the ground, forcing it closer to Akira with a strike from his knife. With that final hit, the monster goes into nothingness. His mask going back in place and his outfit going out in the same blue flame, Akira looks to the side at a more battered Morgana. 

"Thanks for the backup fuzzy hair." Morgana scratches the back of his ears. "But maybe we should be more careful before walking into things." 

Akira nods at Morgana and starts looking around for the exit. Of course, the hallway they were fighting in was connected to the main hall where he and the blond were captured so escaping through there is just calling for trouble. 

"Oh, you're looking for the exit, aren't you?" Akira glances back at Morgana who was walking towards a door near where the stairs were. "It's right over here." 

Thank god, maybe he and the blond could finally get out of here.

* * *

It is a few days later.

Ryuji found his Persona, Shiho tried to commit suicide (thinking that makes Akira's skin crawl. He and Ryuji could've prevented it if they weren't so pussy-footed about killing Kamoshida. Hell, Kamoshida deserves death if it comes to it.), and Ann joined their little posse. 

Oh and Morgana is actually a cat. 

_Do you really have time to joke in a state like this?_

_…No._

Anyways, Akira and the "Phantom Thieves of Hearts" (thank Ryuji for the name) started to infiltrate Kamoshida's castle when they found a broken staircase. Apparently, cognition isn't truly representative of one's mental care. If it was, this staircase wouldn't be in disrepair and Akira would still be frowning at it.

Mor- Mona, tugs on his sleeve. "Hey, leader? You're not spacing out on us, are you?" Joker shakes his head. "Well, try this on for me." Mona pulls out a small box, just smaller than Joker's palm. Joker bores his eyes into Mona as the cat pushes the box into his left sleeve and takes out a sewing kit. "Stay still." Complying to him, Joker looks up at the hook that Mona was talking about. "Okay, all done."

"So, what did you give him?" Skull asks. 

"Oh, you'll see." Okay, Mona. Looking to his wrist, Joker sees the imprint of the box within his sleeve. He flicks his wrist and a small hook comes out. Ah, so that's what Mona gave to him. 

"Go in a line and grab onto each other. Now hold on." The team does that and with a bit of a swing of the hook, they're up and on-

On each other's asses.

"Damn cat!"

"I told you! I'm not a cat!"

"Will you guys stop bickering?!"

Joker crawls out of the pile they made out of themselves. At least they got to the top of the staircase. "Hey, Mona." The team goes quiet. "Why didn't you get everyone here a grappling hook?"

At least Mona had the decency to look sheepish. "I may have only found enough material for one…"

Great. "Okay. Next time, we probably need to get some more for the team. If you need me to get the material for you to craft more of these things then that's fine." Joker looks and stares at the nearby doorway, hearing footsteps. "If you guys are done laying on the ground, we should probably get going." He could hear them climbing off of each other. As soon as Joker hears that they're ready, he starts moving forward. "Also Mona?" Joker steps into the doorway and sees at the end of the hall, a shadow.

"Yeah, Joker?"

Joker rotates his wrist to see the box. "Can this thing break under stress?" 

"We just went through the stress test." That's a no then.

"Alright-" Joker eyes the shadow in front of them. "I'm really going to put it through its paces then!" Flicking his wrist up, he puts his knife into the hook and throws his improvised weapon at the shadow. Cutting into its mask, the shadow bursts into two succubi and an incubus. "Mona, you and I will take down the succubi while Panther and Skull will take care of the incubus." Joker orders as his knife flies back into his left hand. He quickly throws it back into his right.

He hears confirmations as he shifts his focus towards one of the shadows. He casts his grappling hook towards it- but adds a spin, looping the cable around the succubus and capturing it. With a smug grin, Joker pulls the shadow in, unwrapping the hook and sending it flying towards him. Anticipating its trajectory, Joker lands a stab in a critical area. With the extra momentum and damage from being grappled, the shadow disappears instantly. 

Joker looks at his team and see- 

"Dude, that was awesome!"

"Lookin' cool Joker!" 

"Joker, can you teach me how to do that with my whip?"

-sees that they've finished the fight. At least.

* * *

Light peers into the attic as Akira reads through the third guide on weapons he has brought from the bookstore and he wonders what he's sending his Sunday for. 

_"Many who thought that they were the 'world's deadliest man' laid down when faced with true adversity!"_ This sounds like some macho horseshit but if Akira wants to keep everyone alive when they face off Kamoshida tomorrow then he has to take everything on its own merits. Continuing to read the guide, Akira realizes that it actually does have valuable lessons in it. It's mainly about human opponents but when it comes to a fight with a person's shadow? Akira doesn't know if he'll be more intelligent than the normal shadows they've faced. 

_"You must first lead with an unarmed strike and follow through with it. The empty hand should create an opportunity for your knife thrust."_ Opportunity. Akira's been opening up opportunities ever since Arsène has awakened inside of him, hasn't he? Thinking about it, that's a lot less metaphorical with how he utilizes his grappling hook and his environment, right? Huh, he didn't really notice beforehand.

 _"If you control your opponent's left side it is difficult for him to protect that area-"_ Controlling the opponent to get openings… Isn't that like the elements that all of the shadows seem to be strong or weak to in one way or another? Akira looks around his room and remembers that Morgana went out to search for more materials while he reads all of these knife instructional books. 

He would have Ryuji and Ann read up on how to use their weapons but he has a feeling that they would rather take a more hands-on approach to fully utilizing their tools. Akira puts the small book down next to him as he looks up at his ceiling. They can't just rely on figuring things out on the fly as they're doing right now, there has to be some structured methodology. If only they would have a place to do that.

They can't go anywhere in the palace because the shadows would interrupt them. They can't use the real world because. Well. How suspicious would three teenagers and a cat be going somewhere with model weapons in their bags? (Later, Akira would realize, not that suspicious.)

Akira has to talk to Morgana later about this, maybe the cat would somehow know a place where the group could train in private. Ha, yeah right. 

Akira picks up the book and starts reading again until night falls.

* * *

_pistols_

And of course, Akira Kurusu never fired a gun before too. At this point, he's going to drive a car.

Despite all of the movies (or maybe because this freaky dimension is just, _freaky_ ), the gun barrel doesn't let out smoke as he puts down two pixies in his sight. Ryuji packed this model pistol with him when they agreed to investigate the castle again. Thankfully, he was strangely tactful about it at school and only showed him it after they fought some enemies. It would've been useful to do that before they were facing shadows but no harm, no foul.

Morgana hums as he looks at Akira, rubbing his chin. "For an amateur, you're a pretty half-decent shot." Thanks for the backhanded compliment. Akira nods.

Ryuji comes out and starts to question everything about this damn castle again- honestly, Akira agrees with him, this is wack as hell but you just have to accept it as it is at this point. Morgana tries to explain everything, again. Afterward, he says that Akira's the leader in combat. Akira takes this to mean that he'll have to command the cat (probably a cat) in the heat of battle, so he doesn't point out that he lacks any leadership experience since he'd rather not have to follow a maybe-cat's orders instead. 

They follow down the path and see another patrolling knight. Akira runs up to it with his knife and pistol drawn, jumping up to its mask, and slides his knife under it. Yanking the mask off and twirling off of its back, Akira points his Makarov at his enemies and fires. Shots rain down on a pixie and mandrake, black blood oozes from their wounds as Akira lands next to the pixie. Akira pushes his knife into the shadow, turning it into ash. He reloads his gun and aims at the stunned mandrake. Before he could fire his shot off, a gust of wind comes from the ground and kills his target.

"Dude!" Akira turns to see Ryuji coming out of his cover, stepping towards him. "Where did you learn how to do that?!" Akira shrugs. Ryuji frowns. "You sayin' that you all of this crazy shit- all off of the cuff?!" Sure, Ryuji; Akira nods. 

"Yeah, fuzzy hair. Even I don't know how to do that." Morgana postures next to him.

"Call it instinct." Both of his companions frown at that. "Regardless, we should start moving." Akira starts walking deeper into the dungeon. Akira can only hear the buzz of noise from them for a few moments before footsteps softly come over. Honestly, Akira doesn't know why he's so good at this. It could just be how his persona enhances his body. So why does he instinctively know to take off shadows' masks? Or whatever he just did right now?

Akira shakes his head. They still have to explore this place and take down Kamoshida.

* * *

_...So you asked your cat for a place to train?_

_Yes._

_I'm getting a drink after this._

**Author's Note:**

> wrote this to offset the sweets. 
> 
> oh shit i just wrote some of jokers moveset didnt i.
> 
> stay safe


End file.
